Things go wrong when ultimate power is left unchecked. That truism is on display, in multiple ways, in Ultimates2 #4. Is it good?
Ultimates2 #4 (Marvel Comics)
The inevitable has happened! The Ultimates mix it up with the Troubleshooters, and it’s a dimension-ripping Pier-Sixer! But only one of these teams is on the same page, and maybe not the one you think.
Meanwhile, elsewhere and everywhere, the new combined being of Logos is going about the business of crafting the multiverse how it wants, and mowing down anything that could possibly raise an objection. Possibility, though, might be the only thing that can resist. The Lifebringer didn’t have as good a time of it.
Is It Good?
Writer Al Ewing does a great job of pulling together disparate stories and struggles in Ultimates2 #4. We see the continued mistrust in the Ultimates themselves and the innate (deliberate?) rifts within the Troubleshooters. Galactus makes a good observer until he’s pulled back into the monstrous agenda of Logos, bringing things full circle.
Beyond the two Troubleshooters we’ve learned a little about already, the rest of the team is introduced not with exposition, but through action — just as it should be in a comic book. Much of the issue is a frenetic fight, one that highlights some little known, creative power uses from the Ultimates, too.
In a reversal from previous issues, these less-cosmic scenes are where artist Travel Foreman struggles. Characters are misproportioned (not in a stylistic way) and faces are hard to recognize. Conversely, the scenes from the Superflow, featuring some lost Celestials and neat panel layouts, are the best Foreman’s done in the entire Ultimates2 series. A climactic encounter with black ooze flowing from the mouth of Logos is genuinely disturbing, thanks in part to the refined colors of Dan Brown.
Ultimates2 #4 ramps up the action while simultaneously hastening the narrative’s momentum and further defining many of the different characters in the cast. It’s a nice little payoff package that sets the stage for further events at the same time. The art is better than it’s been since the first issue, but still struggles to match the consistency of the story.
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